The Fall and Rise of Heros
by Thunder Stag
Summary: When Ralph's game is unplugged, he considers it a simple fact of life. But when he and Felix begin to feel worse and worse, they realize that they need to get it back. Veanelope and Calhoun help them traverse the wild world of the internet as they search for their game, but will they accomplish their goal in time to save Ralph and Felix?


**Hello. Welcome to my first story. Please enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: As much as my soul burns for the ownership of Wreck-It-Ralph and every character, plot, and scrap of pure happiness therein, I own nothing. Excuse me while I water my houseplants with my tears...**

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The arcade was in a bad way; it wasn't so much that they were losing customers that they were losing money. Arcades were a dying enterprise, according to most; it was and its price, 25 cents per game, had been thought up during a time when that money could accomplish something. These days it took more money than the games were generating to power and heat Ludwik's Arcade. They were starting to go bankrupt.

The progress of this was stopped for about three years after Fix it Felix broke and fixed itself overnight; the unexpected addition of Vanelope von Schweetz to Sugar Rush helped, and when Hero's Duty was discovered by the community at large, it was widely approved of. But things can change. The gamers who were first entranced by the new characters in various games grew older. Some left, stating that the arcade was 'for little kids', and others had to leave for college and the like. The arcade was loosing money each day.

Mr. Ludwik had no choice but to sell the place. A company took over quickly; they were nice people, and they understood the importance of keeping the old arcade as close to the original as possible, but changes were made. They decided that certain games had to go, and Fix if Felix was so old it was getting embarrassing to have it in the arcade. Besides, they needed somewhere to put a more complete snack bar than a few vending machines, and Fix it Felix was prime real estate.

The decision was made: Fix it Felix would be taken to the warehouse in New York where many old games were kept - the owner of the company was something of a pack rat - and if there was ever a demand for the old game again, they would bring it back. The news caught many of the gamers off guard, and there was a rush to play the classic one last time before it was taken away. The inhabitants of the game (and two others) took the news less well.

Felix and Ralph were mostly alright with it, although the Nicelanders were less so. The two leads had seen dozens of games come and go and come again, and had known from the moment Turbo first got his and another's game unplugged that it would have to happen some time. The Nicelanders decided to stay in Game Central Station for as long as they could in hopes of the game coming back, and Ralph and Felix decided to come with them. They had made too many friends among other games not to. In fact, only two characters stayed in the game: Q-Bert and Gene.

Q-Bert cited his being old and tired of being homeless as the cause in a short but stirring speech given to Felix and Ralph (no one else knew much Q-Bertese). Gene stated that he was old and tired. He had lived in the apartment building for longer than most games had been plugged in, and that he would not leave the game for the world. He and Q-Bert that if they were ever to come back online, they would do their level best to carry on the normal game, since it was not assured that they would be plugged in at what they all still thought of as Ludwick's. The day of the unplugging came. Felix and Ralph brought out their most treasured possessions: Felix's hammer and first medal and Ralph's stump and first broken brick. The Nicelanders did the same, carrying model boats and the like, and at the end of the last day of gameplay, they and all of the rest of the characters in the arcade stood silent vigil, watching the plug be pulled. When it finished, the whole group silently left for their own games.


End file.
